Stormwind keep is a Role Player's dream. Put quite simply, Stormwind proves that Blizzard knows what Role Players want and it gives it to them. To some degree it just makes you want more, but thats what expansions are for right?

It all starts when you walk in to the city. The first thing we RPers will notice is the geography surrounding stormwind keep. Its the perfect location for the legendary keep which repelled the first invasion of the bloodlusted orcs. Surrounded by a steep valley wall, the first nut any invaders would have to crack is the front gates. Someone actually built the keep with defense in their minds. As you breach the gates you have a long walkway with a moat under it. Literally it would take an army to breach this place and everything about it seems to reinforce that idea. Even inside you can see how the different areas would be defended. In short its a keep that actually looks like a keep.

Stormwind is easy to find your way around in but totally possible to get lost in as well. This dichotomy simply exudes Role Playing friendliness. First off, every building literally seems different from the next. Big bold signs let you know what each shop is selling and what's more, once inside you can see their crates, their wares and even their upstairs storage areas. in other words, they looked like people actually worked there and shopped there. Instead of EQ shops which are cubicles with vendors. Essentially for the first time in a MMORPG I felt like I was in a city built by its residents instead of a bunch of random box shaped buildings created for the sole purpose of housing vendors.

Speaking of Stormwind residents, I am positive that it will be they who tickle the hearts of RPers more than anything else in the city. I became aquainted with them by surprise. I had been poking around for more than thirty minutes before I realized that the text that was rolling by was not from other players, but by NPCs themselves. I realized it when I saw a child (seeing a child model alone is worth a nod to Blizz's RP sensibilities) running toward me. As he ran by he was yelling to a girl who was chasing him, taunting her with an apparently stolen doll. The next thing I knew I was chasing him, my mind wondering if stealing a doll was worthy of me taking out my sword and whether the Stormwind Gaurds would agree with me. Thats when I ran smack in to an entire gaggle of kids. They were with their teacher apparently as she gave a lecture about Stormwind Keep. They distratcted me long enough to let the boy get away with his stolen prize. From that point on I realized that the chat window had been filled with various NPCs talking not to me as I clicked on them, but to each other and to other players.

The last area to touch on is something a little ethereal and almost a little cliche. Call it what you want, but I am going to call it respect. Its respect for art for art's sake. Respect for the gamer and respect for the ultimate presentation. It's been called polish or refinement by others to refer to past Blizzard work, but its just plain obvious in Stormwind. Take the dwarven quarter for instance. When I noticed the dull brown haze that filled it, I smiled. From all the forges, the cranes and steam equipment that was crammed in to the tiny burrow, pollution was palpable in the air. As was the heavy ring of hammers striking anvils and bellows stoking the fires. The king of Stormwind is even something you wouldn't expect in most games, check out the screen shot to see who I had to kneel before. Sure fantasy has been done before. Sure we've done so much of this in other games. But nearly every hour I run around Azeroth I discover another little bit of love hidden behind a tree, at the bottom of a stream or in the bowels of a sunken ship.

Naturally, there is more that can be done to make these cities more immersive and engaging. Yet with games like that will always will be the case. As I think of all the other towns in MMORPGs that I have run through, none looked as lifelike, felt as immersive or catered to my RP sensibilities better than Stormwind (and Ironforge too...but heh heh thats another story).

Tomorrow I want to talk about Macros. I've already outlined the fast paced nature of the game and macros have become my answer to it. More importantly as I tweak them to fit the game, I have yet to see a negative response from non-RPers I have grouped with. See you tomorrow!

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